Get ready to hear more and more about “GenAI phone” or “GenAI smartphone”. These terms, unknown until recently, are preparing to become the new trend in the mobile telephony market. But marketing labels aside, what is it really about? What distinguishes a GenAI smartphone from a normal phone?
Above all, why do analysts predict that this new category of devices is destined to revolutionize the sector, with over a billion units in use by 2027? Let's find out together.
What is a GenAI smartphone?
As it turns out, the term “GenAI smartphone” only appeared for the first time in the last six months, when it started appearing in reports from some of the major market research firms.
In December 2023, Counterpoint Technology Market Research published a report on GenAI smartphones, describing them as “a subset of AI smartphones that use generative artificial intelligence to create original content, rather than simply providing pre-programmed responses or performing predefined tasks.” (As of April 2024, the definition has been further expanded).
Meanwhile, in February 2024, Gartner offered its definition, according to which one of the main differences between a GenAI smartphone and a regular smartphone is that the former is “capable of locally running a basic or fine-tuned AI model that generates new derivative versions of content, strategies, projects and methods".
So what is it?
The Counterpoint and Gartner definitions differ slightly (and are quite verbose), but we can consider a GenAI smartphone as a smartphone that has at least the following four characteristics:
- It offers generative AI apps and tools, such as AI chatbots and AI image editing and generation apps.
- These tools are integrated as much as possible into the phone's operating system, so they can be used seamlessly at the system level.
- The phones have chips specifically designed to handle complex AI tasks.
- The phones are powerful enough to run AI models natively on the device, without having to send data to the cloud for processing by remote AI servers.
Well. So what is a GenAI smartphone NOT?
If we consider the four points listed above to define what a GenAI smartphone is, it is clear that today, May 2024, few devices can be considered GenAI phones. That's because most smartphones available today don't have chips specifically designed to handle complex AI tasks.
An example? Many smartphones today can perform Chat GPT, but that doesn't make them GenAI smartphones. Because when you use the ChatGPT app on your smartphone, queries are not processed locally on the device itself. Whatever you type in the ChatGPT app is sent to OpenAI's servers to be processed remotely.
From memory, based on the four criteria listed above, only the most recent flagship models from Google and Samsung qualify, and only in part, as GenAI smartphones. That's because the Samsung Galaxy S24 series and the Google Pixel 8 Pro both run Gemini Nano, Google's "small-scale" language model that can run on the smartphone itself (provided its CPU is powerful enough).
So, yes, this means that even the iPhone 15 Pro Max, Apple's flagship model, cannot be considered a GenAI smartphone. At least not yet.
The future of GenAI smartphones
Expect the situation to change quickly (we're talking about AI, right? Get used to sudden changes). Next month, Apple will unveil iOS 18 and is expected to add generative AI capabilities to some existing iPhones, meaning Apple could soon become the company with the most GenAI smartphones on the market, despite currently having none .
In any case, the iPhone 16 series, whose release is scheduled for September, will be considered composed of GenAI smartphones (and will probably be heavily marketed as such by Apple).
An advertising tsunami
Combine the words “GenAI smartphone” and “marketing” with a line, and expect to be inundated with advertising in the near future. Smartphone sales have been stagnant for years, as the devices are virtually at a standstill. As such, every smartphone company sees the boom in generative AI as a lifesaver to help them reinvigorate their sales.
But will consumers bite? Counterpoint research indicates yes. The marketing firm says that while only 2024% of smartphone shipments are expected to be GenAI smartphones in 11, by 2027 it is estimated that 43% of all smartphone shipments will be GenAI smartphones and, by the same year, the number of GenAI phones in use worldwide will exceed one billion devices for the first time.
A new era for mobile telephony
The advent of GenAI smartphones represents a potentially epochal turning point for the mobile telephony market. Much more than the spread of cameras in smartphones, which have produced a global boom in content. Integrating generative AI into devices promises to fundamentally transform the way we interact with our phones and the kinds of tasks we can do with them.
Imagine being able to generate images, texts or even videos directly from your smartphone. To be able to interact with virtual assistants equipped with an unprecedented understanding of language and "reasoning" abilities. These are just some of the possibilities that GenAI smartphones could open up.
These are complex questions, which will require careful debate between companies, legislators and civil society. But one thing seems certain: GenAI smartphones are destined to become an increasingly present reality in our lives. And to change, perhaps irreversibly, our relationship with mobile technology.
Whether you are a technology enthusiast or a simple smartphone user, it is worth keeping an eye on this trend. Because the future of mobile telephony will probably speak the language of generative artificial intelligence. And it will take the form of a GenAI phone.
